The Padres need new ownership with the means to make things happen and the time to set things straight; someone who pays with cash instead of promissory notes; someone with both a prenuptial agreement and a succession plan; someone who can anchor a franchise that has been adrift for far too long.

Baseball must insist on it. Commissioner Bud Selig should see to it personally. Roiled by severe budget cuts, wrenching roster turnover, installment financing and deepening distrust — by the turbulent tenures of John Moores and Jeff Moorad — the taxpayers who helped build Petco Park and the fans who might fill it deserve stability and substance and should accept nothing less.

Baseball has bungled its responsibility in San Diego. If Moorad was incapable of being approved as the Padres’ “control” person — if his financing was too flimsy and his enemies too numerous — he should have been blocked at the beginning and not on the cusp of closing the deal three years later. If Moores is determined to sell or compelled to do so by the terms of his divorce settlement, Selig owes it to the city to screen prospective suitors this time as if he were selecting a son-in-law.

No more of the slipshod scrutiny that enabled Frank McCourt to tarnish the brand of the Los Angeles Dodgers. No more of the 11th-hour analyses and last-minute theatrics that accompanied Moorad’s botched bid for approval. No more piecemeal purchases. No more fire sales as a result of inadequate operating capital. No more hand-to-mouth management for a business Forbes magazine now values at $458 million.

Unless Moores and his partners decide to retain their 51 percent interest in the ballclub, the requirement that prospective owners be approved by a three-quarter vote supplies Selig with the leverage to impose his considerable influence on the proceedings. Given the Moorad debacle, it ought to be incumbent on the commissioner (and/or de facto kingmaker Jerry Reinsdorf), to ensure that the Padres’ next owner is a billionaire with a long-term outlook and limited baggage.

That demanding combination may not be as rare as some suppose. Given the $2 billion Magic Johnson & Co. have agreed to pay for the Dodgers, and all of the 10-digit bids that were rejected, the number of qualified baseball buyers far exceeds the supply of available ballclubs.

Hedge fund manager Steve Cohen, the beaten favorite in the bidding for the Dodgers, is reportedly worth more than $8 billion. Former player agent Dennis Gilbert, who has bid unsuccessfully for both the Dodgers and Texas Rangers, is not as wealthy as Cohen, but is better connected in baseball.

“Sandy Alderson and Larry Lucchino are in a room,” I once asked him. “One is the smartest man in baseball. The other thinks he is. Which is which?”

“Neither,” Gilbert replied. “It’s Jerry Reinsdorf.”

In light of the Dodgers’ deal, the Padres’ still-pending Fox Sports deal and baseball’s prolonged labor peace, finding an unblemished, big-bucks buyer ought to be easier now than it was in 2009. Though the Dodgers command a significant premium because of their market size, everyone with a piece of the Padres stands to profit and pretty handsomely.

Though Moorad’s group retains a contractual option to complete its layaway purchase of the ballclub, its ability to close the deal is still predicated on the consent of three-quarters of major-league owners. While the Dodgers’ sale and the Fox Sports deal presumably provides a powerful incentive to exercise that option, the depth of the group’s financing and the length of its commitment are unclear and potentially problematic.

Since suspicions persist that Moorad’s intention was to flip the franchise after selling its local television rights, his partners will need to produce a persuasive and unimpeachable frontman (and possibly additional funds) if they expect to complete their acquisition. Several baseball sources familiar with the Padres’ partners have independently identified Ron Fowler as the ideal candidate for that role. (Fowler, chairman and CEO of Liquid Investments and a leading benefactor of local athletic programs, has yet to respond to multiple requests for comment.)

John Moores, meanwhile, is positioned to grab a large slice of a Fox Sports’ signing bonus reported at $150 million, to renegotiate the terms of that deal to influence the position of Moorad’s partners and, ultimately, to sell the Padres a second time to a third party at a higher price.

The onus is on Bud Selig to anoint the best possible buyer. Preferably, someone who can get approved.